Missionaries
Get connected with the missionaries that Grace Toronto Church supports! Congregants are encouraged to personally request to be on our missionaries' prayer newsletters and to explore ways they can support their ministries.
Jessica chu
OMF CANADA
JAPAN
Jessica is serving with OMF Canada and involved in the marketplace pilot project in Japan. The project focuses on collaboration between corporate workers, professionals, churches, and mission organizations in hopes of sharing the gospel with and equipping Japanese disciples who work in corporate and professional settings. Currently, Jessica is developing prayer and financial partners in Toronto. She hopes to be in Japan by early 2020.
Jessica graduated with a M.Div in Clinical Counselling from Tyndale Seminary and is a registered psychotherapist trained in marriage and family therapy. She has worked with Canadian, Chinese and Japanese-speaking individuals, couples, and families in both agency and private practice settings. In Japan, she hopes to build relationships with urban-dwelling Japanese professionals and co-labor with the local church in evangelism and discipleship. She also hopes to facilitate emotional and relational healing with Japanese and expatriate communities in view of individual, marital, and family flourishing.
Growing up between Vancouver and Taiwan, Jessica moved to Toronto for university in 2009 and has been a part of Grace Toronto since 2010. Jessica is passionate about integration, story-telling, photography, trekking, and discovering delicious food. She treasures your prayer and emotional support and would love to stay connected.
STAY CONNECTED:
jcf.chu@gmail.com
CALVIN & PEARL LAU
SOUTH ASIA
At the mission hospital, Calvin has been involved with supporting the pastoral care/social services department. This team cares for patients’ financial, emotional, and spiritual needs. Calvin has also been supporting and sitting on the advisory committee for a children’s home and mental health rehabilitation centre for patients who have no safe home to return to after being admitted to the hospital. Pearl, a family physician with a specialization in hospital medicine, has been working in the inpatient medical wards and in the outpatient department, taking overnight call once a week. As one of eight senior medical staff, she is involved with supervising local medical interns and residents as well as teaching some of the weekly academic tutorials for the trainees.
We are currently home side and are discerning when God will lead us back to the field.
Please feel free to reach out if you would like to hear more!
STAY CONNECTED:
calvinandpearl@gmail.com
Matt Lammers
Engineering Ministries INTernationaL
Uganda
In 2010, Matt moved to Toronto to begin his career as a structural engineer. He grew up in a rural community and mentions that he would not have moved to Toronto except for work. Matt recalls, "Work became the focal point of my life. It was getting busier and more stressful all the time. After a lengthy period of busyness came to an end and I had some time to reflect back, I realized that I was not satisfied with where my life was heading. I enjoyed work most of the time, but I did not want it to be the focal point of my life. I began praying for God to show me where my life should be going. After another wave a busyness, I was beginning to contemplate different options."
At that point, Matt had just heard about EMI (Engineering Ministries International) at an event hosted at Grace Toronto Church. He was excited about the work of EMI and was ready to get involved. Although he did not plan for this to be a long term commitment, God had other plans.
After a four month internship with EMI UK in 2013, Matt returned to Toronto for only three months and then continued with EMI in Uganda for one year. Instead of returning to Toronto, Matt decided to join EMI full time in Uganda, where he met his wife in Uganda and got married in 2015. Matt and his wife Ashley have settled into life in Uganda and are raising their family there until God directs them somewhere else.
STAY CONNECTED:
matt.lammers@emiworld.org
https://mattashleylammers.blogspot.com/
MORGAN DONALDSON
Athletes In Action
Canada
Morgan has been serving with Athletes in Action since May 2006. In the last 12 years, she has served as Campus Staff, Campus Hub Director, Campus Leadership Team, Director of Operations, Director of Advancement, and National Leadership Team. She currently works in the area of Fundraising and Donor Development.
Morgan describes the work God has been doing on the field: "I have seen God draw hearts to him on campus, at soccer camps, at orphanages in Brazil, Paraguay and Moldova and have witnessed how the language of sport can be used by God to proclaim the gospel and bring love, hope, and freedom to those who receive it."
Morgan serves alongside the National Director in this current season, and she is excited to see how their focus on major gifts and enhancing their donor development systems will generate more funds for Kingdom work.
STAY CONNECTED:
morgand@athletesinaction.ca
PRESTON STEINKE
INTER-VARSITY CHRISTIAN FELLOWSHIP
Canada
Preston is on staff with Inter-Varsity Christian Fellowship serving as a campus minister at the University of Toronto. Being shaped by God’s Word and led by the Holy Spirit, InterVarsity’s purpose is the transformation of youth, students, and graduates, in all their ethnic diversity, into fully committed followers of Jesus Christ. InterVarsity longs to raise up extraordinary kingdom leaders on campus and camps across the country and then send them out into the world after graduation.
University is a pivotal time in one’s journey into adulthood. Recent studies have shown that the majority of students who enter university as Christians no longer consider themselves followers of Jesus by the time they graduate. InterVarsity builds witnessing communities on campus where students can engage the Gospel through scripture, prayer, worship, and evangelism.
Preston currently works with the Korean Christian Fellowship - one of InterVarsity’s ethnic specific ministries. There he is responsible for the nurturing and growth of the fellowship as they seek to pour out the love of Christ onto campus.
STAY CONNECTED:
psteinke@ivcf.ca